I guess I should say something. If for nothing else, for the fact that there's nothing left to lose here.

It's been a few weeks now that the "main" Perpetuum server is no longer running, which I suppose is the symbolic conclusion of the development of Perpetuum, something that was our first venture in game development and took 10+ years of our lives. In some ways, it was an emotional moment to pull the plug, and in other ways it really wasn't. Let me try to explain why.

We started working on the game (then just called "GenXY") in around 2004 - we genuinely had no idea what we were doing, we had no idea of the scope of it, we had no idea what it'd become or what we'd WANT it to become; we just had a faint idea that it was possible, and we started on it because we didn't know better. Turns out, that was kinda really we needed to get it done - because if we would've known what's coming, we probably never would've started.

I don't mean that as necessarily a negative, it's just that we mostly just made shit up along the way as we went: there's no "How To Make An MMO" handbook, and there sure as hell wasn't one in 2004. Most of us were still in our early 20s, and we never realized the amount of technology we would need to conjure up along the way, but we were ambitious (and stupid) and the fact that we can't (or not supposed to) do it just never occurred to us. So we went to it head first. We really were indie before "indie" was a thing.

Of course, the mission objective changed a few times along the way - initially we didn't want character models, just these little soul-like particle bursts, because we wanted to cut down on having to write an animation engine. Then when we realized that'd be boring, we went for robots because we didn't want to code skinned animation. The longer we went on, the more it snowballed, and next thing we knew we had this elaborate multi-platform architecture to have a game, a client, a website, a webstore, a backend, all these things in all different programming languages, platforms, database engines, that we just cooked up out of nowhere because we just thought "we have to figure this out", and we did, even though many many people not only warned us against, but actively predicted we couldn't do it.

That's not to say it wasn't bumpy. Even after alpha, even after closed beta, even after beta, it was bumpy. There were some joyful fuckups (like accidentally shutting down servers with a piece of pastry and setting our kitchen equipment on fire), some a bit more stressful (like screwing up the game launch because we weren't drunk, as opposed to the early access launch when we were) and some of them pretty miserable (like the cease-and-desist letter - guess who!). But through all of this, we had one goal and one goal only - to finish and release a game and do the best we can. And in that, say what you want, we succeeded. Not opinion, fact.

We didn't always see eye-to-eye with you - and that's putting it nicely; as developers, it was necessarily to be cagey and secretive sometimes, to be stern at other times - even though we desperately wanted to keep in contact with out playerbase, we learned quickly that any reaction we released to the public had immediate ripples in-game, sometimes considerably bigger ones that we imagined, so we often secluded until we had something that was ready to show. This of course sometimes meant that what we produced wasn't in line with the general expectations, or that it split the playerbase even more - it often felt like a no-win-scenario, but we soldiered on, because we were desperate to make this work. There's a delicate balance between listening enough and not listening too much, and we often missed that balance - but we always tried.

The way I imagine studio closures happen in gamedev, they're probably come more as a sudden shock - for us, that wasn't the case. There were several moments where we knew that this isn't gonna go for long - we all hoped it would, but I think reality set in when we weren't able to reach the numbers we needed; we reached a number that was enough to sustain development, but we had no funds to market the game, or to produce massive amounts of content, and our creativity and work-ethic was only able to get us out the door, not all the way to the next town. So yeah, we've seen the end coming for a long time - and who are we kidding, you did too. But we didn't want to go away without leaving a mark, pretending this never happened, so we did what we could to make sure the legacy at least in part lives on.

I personally am still 100% proud of the effort we've put in over the years and the spirit we've invested in this game. Would I do things differently, knowing what I know now? Sure. But hindsight is always 20/20, and with the naive mindset we had, and the resources we had available, I think we made the best game we could.

A few people have asked what projects we moved on to, so here's a brief summary: (I'll continue to expand this if I can find others)

Zoom spent a bit of time in motion graphics, and now works at Primal Games on a yet-unannounced title

Alf is developing cloud technology at Nokia, which he says is a lot less stressful

BoyC is working on car UX software at NNG

Quodys, in his own words, "is on his journey to wreck a yet bigger enterprise, this time a global telco company"

Gargaj (me) moved on to Slightly Mad Studios and has worked on Project CARS 2, and is now working on a yet-unannounced title.

Aside from that, as many of you know Zoom, BoyC and myself have been and will continue releasing work under the name Conspiracy; we've recently released our first venture in VR on the Oculus store - it's not really game-related, but it's something we'll keep on doing if you wanna follow us there.

Anyway.

Thanks for sticking with us over the years - you helped us achieve something that very few people could.

The end of an era

I’ll start with the bad news: after more than 7 years of service the official Perpetuum server is shutting down on January 25th, 2018. This is purely a financial decision as the monthly cost of running the server is way more than what we can handle.

We cannot release the live server’s database to the public due to privacy issues, however DEV Crm is committed to keep the live DB alive with his own private server solution. This won’t be the same as the current official server in terms of speed and availability and it’s strictly a “no promises made” gig, but it’s something.

Where will Perpetuum be available in the future?

After January 25th the only platform where Perpetuum will be available to purchase is Steam. We are committed to provide a Steam version for every player who owns Perpetuum currently outside of Steam. The details of how this will happen are still being worked out, we ask for your kind patience.

Also, the price of the client has been reduced permanently from $9.99 to $4.99.

Will you still provide support for Perpetuum in the future?

Occasional bugfixes here and there but we cannot make any promises. That is why we will release the server source code to the public and help the community try to stand on its own feet.

The Standalone Server

The Perpetuum Standalone Server has been already available for a while on Steam but apparently it is hidden for a lot of people for some reason. If you own Perpetuum on Steam then it should be listed under Library/Tools and goes by the name “Perpetuum Dedicated Server”.

Some players have reported that it popped up after some time, others have told that SteamCMD is a good workaround for getting the server. (AppID is 693060)

Is there a list of available Perpetuum servers?

Where can you ask technical questions about the standalone server?

We absolutely love and endorse what the guys at The Open Perpetuum Project are doing and occasionally lurk on their discord channel with other players in the know, so that’s your best bet. As a last resort for reaching us specifically, there is also info@perpetuum-online.com.

Since the official Perpetuum Wiki will continue to live on, it might also be a good platform for gathering all info. Of course this is just an option, if the community finds a better place for the knowledgebase, that’s fine with us.

What about dev/admin commands and features for the client?

We can’t make the development client public for technical reasons, but the admin commands and tools will be progressively added to the live client soon. (things like terrain and terraforming tools, decor&blocking tools, spawn commands, etc.)

Where can I find the server source code?

The source will allow you to build the server as it is, but we'll be expanding the Github page with more detailed information on how to build and debug in easier ways for those who aren't as experienced with development.

Thank you!

This is probably the last blog post here from me, but Perpetuum became a big part of our lives and we couldn’t forget it even if we tried. We are immensely grateful to everyone who has played Perpetuum in the past and to the people who dedicate time to help it live on, well… perpetually.

So you haven’t heard from us in a long time, and the reason for that probably became more and more obvious with time: I'm sorry to inform you that Perpetuum is not actively developed anymore.

This blog is meant to inform you what this means for the game, for you, the players, and how the future of Perpetuum looks like. Because there is a future, at least we hope so.

How we got here

We knew from the start that Perpetuum will be a niche game and we were cool with it. But even considering that, it never really got off. We had two major spikes, the one during the EVE exodus, and after the Steam launch, but even those pale in comparison to what the we would have needed to justify the “massively” in MMORPG.

Over the years we’ve been in talks with numerous serious publishers and investors, but unfortunately none of those promises came to fruition. So the only thing we could do was to push it on our own and hope that steady work will eventually pay off and bring in a critical mass of players that would keep the game alive for a long time, and provide us a living.

The most prominent feedback that we have received over the years is that Perpetuum has great mechanics and atmosphere but lacks content, and that it is a great foundation for a game. Sadly we never got to the point where we could develop it to its full potential.

It was basically catch-22. After the initial spikes our playerbase always receded to unhealthy levels, which meant that we had to lay off some of our less essential content-related people and also that we didn’t have the funds to do any impactful marketing. Which in turn meant that we could bring in even less new players and develop less new content and do even less marketing. These cycles transformed into a downward spiral where the remaining developers had to be on minimum wage for years and the only thing we could do for the game was fixing bugs and recycling old content. If we would have found a publisher we would have been shut down probably years ago.

I joined Avatar Creations in 2006. After 10 years of “bringing up your own child” and making it part of your everyday life, it’s hard to call it. I can only speak about my own personal experience, but after such a long time of trying hard and failing, there comes a moment when you ask yourself “is it really worth it?” and “what am I doing with my life?”. So the remaining few of us made a mutual agreement that this is it, it’s time to let go.

We didn’t just want to simply let it die though, for two reasons. The first is a selfish one: if years from now someone asks what we have worked on for 10 years, we would like to be able to show them and say “it’s here, you can still play with it if you want”. In case of an MMO this is not self-evident.

The second reason is of course our players. However small it is, we still have a faithful community, and we love you all for that.

Your own Perpetuum server

So while the official server is still going to stay online for an undetermined time, in the last few months we’ve been working on a standalone server solution, in order to ensure the game’s future.

Although Perpetuum’s server application is far from being simple, our primary goal while developing the standalone server was simplicity and ease of use, while keeping the possibility of optional in-depth customization open.

The minimum requirements for running the server are lower than you might think: it can be run on the same Windows-based PC that you play Perpetuum on, even both at the same time. Resource usage of course goes up with the concurrent players on the server, so beyond a certain number a dedicated server machine is needed.

You’ll also need to have an SQL server installed for the database, but we got that covered. The Perpetuum server installer is a single exe about 1GB in size and includes the freely available Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Express that’s automatically installed and configured along with the Perpetuum server itself.

The installer also comes with an Admin Tool application, which is used to start/stop and configure the server, as well as provide a management interface for the player accounts on that server.

Server availability can be customized in the following of ways:

Public server: the server will be publicly available and listed in the server browser, which will be visible both in the game client and on our website.

Private server: the server will not be visible in the server browser; players will have to enter the server’s address manually in the game client.

Open registration: anyone who connects to the server can create a new account and play.

Limited registration: players need to request an account from server admins and only they can create player accounts.

As I mentioned above, initially our primary goal is to provide a working standalone server that anyone who has ever installed any application can set up, manage, and run with minimum hassle. Once we see that this works we can move on to the next phase where we provide documentation and know-how on how you can customize your server and the database, like doing your own balancing. Word of warning though: even our own management tools feel a lot of times quite hacky, the ways you’ll have to tinker with stuff will certainly require patience and at least some minimal knowledge on how databases work.

We still have to work out some kinks, but the standalone server installer will soon be made publicly available to download, for free of course.

Game client changes

The introduction of the standalone server will of course require support in the game client as well, while still retaining simple access to the official server.

It’s not a big change though: a new server selection screen will precede the current login screen. This includes a new server browser window where all the publicly available player-run servers are listed along with the official server, and you can select any number of them to be included in the server dropdown menu on the main screen. From there it’s as easy as clicking the connect button and after that it’s business as usual, just enter your credentials and play.

Becoming Steam-only

A bigger change that some of you probably won’t like is that soon Steam will be the only place where Perpetuum will be distributed, including the standalone server. The reason for this is to ensure the availability of the game on a stable platform, as opposed to our own website that we cannot guarantee to be around forever. Another reason is that it’s uneconomical for us to keep our own payment platform, as purchases made via Steam outweigh our own store by far.

It’s important to note that existing non-Steam (e-mail based) accounts will continue to work with the Steam-based Perpetuum client, but you won’t be able to create a non-Steam account after the change.

Perpetuum Credits and DLCs discontinued

On a standalone server Perpetuum Credits and DLC will make no sense, since we cannot sell and transfer them to a privately held server, and the administrators of the servers would be able to easily hack in as many credits or EP as they like.

So as of now, Perpetuum Credits, ICE, and Upgrade Kits (DLCs) are not available to purchase anymore, but existing assets are not removed of course and can still be used.

FAQ

In the rest of this blog I’ll try to collect any remaining info and questions you might have, and I will also update this section if any unanswered issue comes up in the comments or the forum.

What happens to the official server?

While the development of Perpetuum is discontinued, the game is not shutting down, and the official server will still stay online for an undetermined time.

How can I play Perpetuum in the future?

You will have the choice to either continue playing on the official server, or play on any of the player-run servers.

When will I be able to run my own Perpetuum server?

As soon as possible. Most of the development is done, but we're still working on some details and bugs.

Can I play with my existing account/character on a private server?

This is something that we’re still looking into. What we know for sure is that we cannot give out any personal information included in Perpetuum accounts unless the account holder requests it, so simply copying the database is absolutely a no go. Another problem is that there are a lot of dependencies related to characters, so if we transfer a single account, there are going to be numerous problems if the character’s corporation, or the base/storage where its items are doesn’t exist on the new server... and those are just a few examples.

Can I sell Perpetuum Credits on my own server?

No, Perpetuum Credits are discontinued as server administrators could easily hack in as many credits as they like.

What happens to game features depending on Perpetuum Credits?

They will be either removed or changed to use other ingame currencies (like NIC) at a later time.

What prevents private server administrators to cheat on their own servers and give advantages to certain characters?

Technically nothing. Server administrators have full access to their server’s database and can do with it as they please, we can’t do anything to prevent this. This is something where the power of the community comes in, and we hope servers run by trusted players will develop a good reputation where you can be sure that everyone plays fair.

Will you still provide support for the game?

We are committed to fix any critical game-breaking bugs in the future that would prevent running the game at all. Anything beyond this, including new content, balancing, and individual player support (running the support ticket system) is not possible for us anymore.

Will I be able to do tweak balancing or add new ingame items on my own server?

To a certain extent, yes. It won’t be simple, and your possibilities will be quite limited, but we intend to come up with some documentation on what you can do and how you can do it.

The final 4 robots of the new Syndicate line make their debut in patch 3.8.3, alongside of numerous balancing changes. In this blog we'll take an in-depth look at all these updates - spreadsheets warning ahead!

Helix

Class: Light robot specialized in electronic warfare

"The Helix is a good all-rounder when it comes to electronic warfare. While it may not be the toughest bot around, combining a light chassis with an assault-class undercarriage makes it probably the fastest."

Slots

Head slots: 3

Leg slots: 2

Chassis slots: 3 (2x light turret/misc, 1x light/medium misc)

Bonuses (per extension level)

3% increase to EW strength

3% reduction to EW modules accumulator usage

-0.10 to surface hit size

1% reduction to firearms cycle time

+2 to signal masking

Notable stats

Accumulator: 350 AP @ 120sec recharge

CPU: 220 TF

Reactor: 170 RP

Armor: 725 HP

Passive resistances: 45 points universally (31%)

Surface hit size: 3 m

Locking range: 350 m

Sensor strength: 110 Hw³

Signal detection: 75 rF

Signal masking: 120 rF

Cargo capacity: 3.75 U

Slope capability: 56°

Mass: 6000 kg

Base speed: 129.6 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

80 TM tokens

80 ICS tokens

80 ASI tokens

800,000 NIC

Callisto

Class: Mech specialized in electronic warfare

"Employing our own technologies and incorporating all the knowledge that we have gained from the Nian factions, the Callisto is an elusive and flexible mech for tackling and shutting down enemy units."

Slots

Head slots: 4

Leg slots: 4

Chassis slots: 3 (3x light/medium turret/misc)

Bonuses (per extension level)

3% increase to EW strength

3% reduction to EW modules accumulator usage

-0.10 to surface hit size

1% reduction to firearms cycle time

+2 to signal masking

Notable stats

Accumulator: 2600 AP @ 360sec recharge

CPU: 450 TF

Reactor: 700 RP

Armor: 1350 HP

Passive resistances: 45 points universally (31%)

Surface hit size: 6 m

Locking range: 400 m

Sensor strength: 120 Hw³

Signal detection: 110 rF

Signal masking: 110 rF

Cargo capacity: 7.5 U

Slope capability: 45°

Mass: 16500 kg

Base speed: 95.4 kph

Syndicate Supplies cost

700 TM tokens

700 ICS tokens

700 ASI tokens

8,000,000 NIC

Legatus

Class: Heavy mech specialized in firearms

"Alluding on its appearance our engineers have nicknamed it "Doc". Aptly so, as the Legatus can administer a swarm of good old glowing hot bullets at a relatively long range for those in need. And that without writing out a prescription."

Syndicate Supplies cost

2,000 TM tokens

2,000 ICS tokens

2,000 ASI tokens

20,000,000 NIC

Metis

Class: Heavy mech specialized in combat support

"Exceptional energy output and defense capabilities - two traits that turn this heavy mech into an indispensable powerhouse on the battlefield. The Metis is the holy grail of remote support, which usually makes it a primary target in the eyes of enemy commanders."

Syndicate Supplies cost

4,000 TM tokens

4,000 ICS tokens

4,000 ASI tokens

40,000,000 NIC

Balancing changes

Tuning module rebalancing

The last patch introduced diminishing returns when using tuning modules in the form of exponentially increasing accumulator usage. The changes were a bit on the brute force side, so in 3.8.3 we are refining this concept further and create some diversity between tuning module tiers.

There is now an efficiency difference between tiers (efficiency meaning what you get from the module for the accumulator used). T1 and T3/T3- have balanced efficiency, T2/T2+ have higher efficiency (meaning the energy usage penalty is less than the provided bonus), and T4/T4+ have low efficiency (energy penalty is higher than the bonus).

In practice this means that if you want to go for maximum bonuses using multiple high tier tunings, you'll experience exponentially higher accumulator usage with every additional tuning. However, if you are concerned about accumulator stability, you can choose lower tier tunings, which provide lower bonuses, but at much better efficiency, with lower accumulator usage penalties.

ARMOR REPAIR TUNINGS

The additional remote repair accumulator penalty has been removed, as the armor repair penalty also affects remote repair modules.

To make things more simple, cycle time modification has been removed (hence all the 1s in the "After" table here) so the new balance is done using only accumulator modification and repair amount modification.

BEFORE

TIER

Acc MOD

Repair MOD

Cycle MOD

T0

1.3

1.1

0.97

T1

1.3

1.3

0.95

T2

1.3

1.3

0.95

T2+

1.3

1.35

0.95

T3-

1.3

1.4

0.92

T3

1.3

1.4

0.92

T4

1.3

1.5

0.9

T4+

1.3

1.55

0.9

AFTER

TIER

Acc MOD

Repair MOD

Cycle MOD

Ratio

T0

1.4

1.1

1

0.79

T1

1.2

1.2

1

1

T2

1.1

1.2

1

1.09

T2+

1.15

1.3

1

1.13

T3-

1.4

1.4

1

1

T3

1.4

1.4

1

1

T4

1.6

1.45

1

0.91

T4+

1.7

1.55

1

0.91

INDUSTRIAL TUNINGS

BEFORE

TIER

Acc MOD

Gather MOD

T0

1.3

1.1

T1

1.3

1.3

T2

1.3

1.3

T2+

1.3

1.35

T3-

1.3

1.4

T3

1.3

1.4

T4

1.3

1.5

T4+

1.3

1.55

AFTER

TIER

Acc MOD

Gather MOD

Ratio

T0

1.4

1.1

0.79

T1

1.2

1.2

1

T2

1.1

1.2

1.09

T2+

1.15

1.3

1.13

T3-

1.4

1.4

1

T3

1.4

1.4

1

T4

1.6

1.45

0.91

T4+

1.7

1.55

0.91

EnWAR TUNINGS

EnWar tunings did not have a diminishing returns factor so far, quite the contrary actually. The more tunings you used, the better your drainers/neutralizers became. This is turned around with the new values, so efficiency is either balanced (T1/T2), or reduced (T3/T4) the more tunings you equip.

This is more interesting for neutralizers since the used and neutralized energy amounts are more closer; for T4 medium tunings the turning point in efficiency (when you need to sacrifice more energy than the amount you neutralize) arrives at using 3x tunings. (For those curious, in the case of T4 medium drainers this theoretically happens at 17x tunings.)

The difference between drained and neutralized energy modification has been removed.

BEFORE

TIER

Acc MOD

Drain MOD

Neut MOD

T1

1.1

1.1

1.2

T2

1.1

1.1

1.2

T3

1.1

1.13

1.23

T4

1.1

1.15

1.25

AFTER

TIER

Acc MOD

Drain MOD

Neut MOD

Ratio

T1

1.1

1.1

1.1

1

T2

1.1

1.1

1.1

1

T3

1.2

1.13

1.13

0.94

T4

1.3

1.15

1.15

0.88

WEAPON TUNINGS

Creating a difference in accumulator usage modifiers between the weapon types was a bad idea, now all types of weapon tunings use the same values. This retains the specific accumulator usage traits of each weapon and creates the same efficiency reduction curve when using multiple tunings.

The same tier efficiency ratio differences are used here as for repair and industrial tunings.

Cycle time modification has been removed here as well, efficiency is controlled by only accumulator usage versus damage modification.

BEFORE (magnetic weapon tunings taken as the example)

TIER

Acc MOD

Damage MOD

Cycle MOD

T0

1.5

1.03

0.97

T1

1.5

1.05

0.95

T2

1.5

1.05

0.95

T2+

1.5

1.055

0.95

T3-

1.5

1.075

0.95

T3

1.5

1.075

0.95

T4

1.5

1.075

0.925

T4+

1.5

1.085

0.925

AFTER (for all wapon types)

TIER

Acc MOD

Damage MOD

Cycle MOD

Ratio

T0

1.4

1.05

1

0.75

T1

1.1

1.1

1

1

T2

1.05

1.1

1

1.05

T2+

1.05

1.2

1

1.14

T3-

1.3

1.3

1

1

T3

1.3

1.3

1

1

T4

1.55

1.4

1

0.9

T4+

1.7

1.5

1

0.88

Medium firearm balancing

Long range firearms (autocannons) were using disproportionally less energy than their short range brothers, so their accumulator usage has been brought in line.

* DPS and Accumulator ratio is MG/AC** DPS is calculated with using 1 damage ammos for simplicity's sake and doesn't consider ciritical hits

Weapon hit dispersion balancing

In order to widen the gap between light and medium weapons, the hit dispersion of guns and the explosion size of missiles got increased. This increases survivability of light robots against larger robots (if the latter use medium weapons, which they mostly do).

Weapon

Before

After

Short Laser

8

16

Long Laser

8

18

Short Magnetic

10

18

Long Magnetic

10

20

Short Firearm

12

22

Long Firearm

10

20

Compact Missile

8

14

Ballistic Missile

9

16

NEXUS module specialization

NEXUS modules are being rebalanced to become a specialty for heavy-class robots. This is achieved by drastically increasing the accumulator usage of the modules, and adding a strong accumulator usage reduction bonus to the robots themselves. In practice this means that the following robots will be able to use NEXUS modules efficiently:

Gropho

Seth

Mesmer

Lithus

Legatus

Metis

Riveler

Symbiont

Scarab

NEXUS-related extensions will be reimbursed during the patch in order to let players reconsider their usage.

Other changes

Increased the missile cycle time bonus of Troiar, Ictus, and Gropho from 1% to 3% per extension level.

Doubled the mass of light armor plates and tripled the mass of medium armor plates.

Deployment

Patch 3.8.3 including the final wave of Syndicate robots and all the above changes will be deployed next week - the exact day and time will be announced soon.

The 3rd group of Syndicate robots is just around the corner, so let's have a closer look at them. This wave consists of two assault-class robots: the Cronus, specialized in both mining and harvesting, and the Hermes, specialized in artifact hunting.

Cronus

Class: Assault robot specialized in mining and harvesting

"The Cronus is the missing link between the light and mech class Nian industrial robots, suitable for both mining and harvesting duties.

Although it can't really compete with the higher robot classes regarding productivity, its versatility makes it the Swiss Army knife of small-scale industrial operations."

Syndicate Supplies cost

Hermes

"The Nians apparently don't care much for their own history, so there wasn't any specialized robot that we could use as our own to discover underground artifacts.

However, with the use of hybrid technologies we were able to build the Hermes - an assault robot that is not only equipped with accurate and high range underground sensors, but also has ample combat capabilities to defend itself when facing an ambush."